It has been said that without including the 650 million disabled women, men and children in poverty reduction strategies, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) cannot be met. The theme for this year’s UN International Day of Disabled Persons, December 3rd, is “Keeping the promise: Mainstreaming disability in the Millennium Development Goals towards 2015 and beyond”. The MDGs are a set of internationally agreed development objectives for the global community. Yet they do not include any mention of disability, despite the poverty of disabled people, with disabled women and children being among the poorest people in the world.

While it is fair to acknowledge that, as Prof Gerard Quinn has said “All countries are developing countries when it comes to disability,” disabled people in countries like New Zealand are generally well off compared to the 400 million disabled people living in Asia and the Pacific.